3S0 Mr Menteath on the Geology of NUhsdale. 



that, in the reign of James V., as much as amounted to the sum 

 of L. 100,000 was obtained in one year. 



It is very interesting to observe, that this spot, not more than 

 two miles each way, in the county of Dumfries, where a hut 

 would perhaps scarcely have been seen but for the mineral 

 treasures there deposited, has for more than a century support- 

 ed an industrious and comfortable population. The miners at 

 Leadhills have a library of 1200 volumes. At Wanlockhead is 

 another of 700 volumes.* 



The intelligence of the miner is well exemplified by the skill 

 with which he cultivates his small plot of ground. Elevated 

 as is his residence, by industriously raising the Alopecurus pra- 

 tensis, or the Meadow foxtail, he has early in the spring green 

 food to give his cow before the lowland farmer. 



The rocks which separate the Sanquhar and Closeburn basins 

 assume more the appearance of grey wacke slate than in most 

 other parts of the range. The stratification is in many places 

 nearly vertical, and runs from NE. to SW. The stratification 

 is very loose, having the seams filled with a red ochrey earth, 

 which is found principally in this quarter. At Burnmouth, a 

 place about the middle of this ridge, which separates the basins 

 of Sanquhar and Closeburn, it has the appearance of indifferent 

 slate ; and at Arkland, in the parish of Tynron, a few miles to 

 the west, slates for roofing have been raised. Thus there seems 

 a slaty structure to extend from Glenochar, a slate quarry in 

 Lanarkshire, across the whole of Dumfriesshire in this direction. 



4. Basin of Closeburn. — The river Nith, after a tumultu- 

 ous course of more than five miles through a rocky chan- 

 nel, exhibiting scenery of the most romantic kind, and beau- 

 tifully adorned with a great variety of natural wood, enters the 

 basin of Closeburn, which is completely encircled by grey- 

 wacke hills, tliat exhibit a pleasing outline. Of these the Low- 

 ders are the most striking. They rise to a considerable eleva- 

 tion;> with a smooth grassy slope to the west; and, by means of a 

 road now opened through them into Lanarkshire, afford one of 



•jThese volumes, in the wild regions of the Leadhills, we believe, are more 

 thoroughly read, and more anxiously sought after, by the poor miners, than 

 are the numerous and splendid volumes in many of the libraries in the low 

 country : hence these people are comparatively well informed. 



